Roasted Pork Belly With Crispy Crackling Skin

Everybody loves a succulent pork belly with crispy skin that makes unforgiving noisy crackling sounds when it is devoured. Ask your family and friends over for dinner and impress them with this roasted pork belly recipe.

Pork Belly with Crispy Crackling Skin

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Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to cook the perfect pork belly with crispy skin.

Preparing the Pork Belly

Pork bellies come in slabs of fatty meat and rind. This recipe requires a slab of boneless pork belly of about 800 grams. If you are using a bigger slab of meat, just increase the portions of ingredients when preparing the meat for roasting.

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 1 hour 15 min

Ready in: 3 hours 15 min

Yields: Serves 2-3 people

Ingredients

800 grams boneless pork belly

2 tablespoons cooking wine

2 tablespoons vinegar

pepper

five-spice powder

cooking salt

Preparation

Wash the pork belly thoroughly. Scrape the surface of the skin with a knife to get rid of any slime and dirt that are on it.

Turn the pork belly over. Sprinkle cooking wine, pepper, salt and five spice powder on the meat side only. Use your hand to rub the ingredients in. The cooking wine and spice will marinate the meat and help to get rid of the porky smell!

Turn the pork belly over with the skin side up. Wipe the skin dry with a paper towel. With a BBQ skewer, pointed sharp object or meat tenderizer to pierce the skin all over. Be careful not to pierce into the fat layer. Each piercing should be about 3-4mm apart and less than 5mm deep. The more holes the better and the crispier the crackling will be.

Put the pork belly on a tray. Leave it uncovered in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. This will help to draw out some of the moisture from the skin. It can also be left overnight in the refrigerator if you are preparing the pork belly for the next day.

Getting Ready for Roasting

Preheat the oven at 200°C (fan-forced).

Wipe off any excess water from the skin with a paper towel.

Put the pork belly on a piece of aluminium foil and start folding the foil on the sides.

Wrap the aluminium foil around the sides of the pork belly, like a tin foil container. Place the pork belly on a baking tray.

Press the foil inwards so that there are no gaps between the foil and the meat.

Brush the skin with vinegar.

Cover the top of the skin with a layer of cooking salt to about 3-4mm in thickness. Lightly press the salt down with a spoon.

Roasting the Pork Belly

Put the pork belly in the preheated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes at 200°C.

After 45-50 minutes, remove the pork belly from the oven. Unwrap the aluminium foil and carefully remove the hardened layer of salt (with a knife) to expose the rind. Discard the salt on the tray for the time being.

Lift up the slab of pork belly with a pair of tongs and put a wire rack over the baking tray. Place the pork belly on the rack and put it back in the oven again.

Cook at the same temperature for 15-20 minutes or until the skin becomes puffy and rough.

If the skin starts to brown on one side, turn the tray around to brown the skin evenly. The pork belly can be left in the oven for a few more minutes as long as the skin is not burnt. A more puffy looking skin will give more crunch.

Remove the pork belly from the oven when the skin is golden brown in colour, all puffed up and textured.

Ways to Serve Crispy Pork Belly

Let the meat cool slightly before carving.

Serve with potatoes and salad for dinner, or with a couple of side dishes like my Creamy Pumpkin Soup and Soft Fluffy Bread Buns. Alternatively, rip the crispy rind off. Cut into bite-size pieces and serve as a snack (like Porky Bits) with plenty of cold beer! Remember to invite some of your mates over.

Eat the remaining meat on its own, mix it in your salad or save it for your next meal (that is, if there's any morsel of meat leftover!).

Pork Belly Preparation Process in Pictures

Click thumbnail to view full-size

A nice slab of pork belly, even comes with a nipple (eek!). | Source

Marinate the under side of the pork belly. | Source

Poke as many holes as possible..keep poking until you can poke no more! | Source

Aluminium foil is wrapped around the sides of the meat. | Source

The pork rind is now covered with a layer a salt. Make sure the salt does not go over the sides of the meat, otherwise it will be rather salty! | Source

After cooking for 45-50 minutes, chisel away the layer of salt with a knife. (Excuse the blurry photo, the photographer was trembling with excitement at the sight of the rind!) | Source

Salt layer is finally removed. A few grains of salt on the skin is no big deal. Continue roasting again until done. | Source

Roast pork belly is almost done. Notice how the skin is bubbling up to give a very rough texture. | Source

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